The Effect of Hydrophilic Treatment of PMMA using Hydrolysis on Cell Attachment and Light Transmission in Vitro(I)

Joo, Choun Ku; Park, Ji Young; Seo, Su Won; Lee, Jin Hak

Abstract

Polymethyl-methacrylate(PMMA) has been used for a proper material of intraocular lens(IOL) but it can induce cyanopsia in psedophakia due to deficiency of light blockage, and corneal endothelial damage or deposition of inflammatory cells due to hydrophobia. Therefore, yellow IOL or heparin surface modified PMMA(HSM-PMMA) IOL was developed to prevent above problems, respectively. In this study, PMMAs were hydrolyzed with a 1:1 mixture of isopropranol and NaOH for 0hour(PMMA-0), 2 hours(PMMA-1), and 4hours(PMMA-2). The effect of hydrolysis treatment was evaluated by measurement of water contact angle and the optical properties was measured using spectrometer as well as cell attachment was examined by inverted light microscope using Wolters cytology method. Cell attachment, 5x104 of RAW264.7(mouse fibrosarcoma cell line) or L929(mouse macrophage) were layered on each PMMA for 12 hours and incubated for 3 days or 7 days. Hydrolysis treatment made PMMA surface hydrophilic ad opaque in time course manner. The attachment of both types of RAW264.7 and L929 cells on the PMMA-1 or PMMA-2 was markedly reduced than that of PMMA-0. The difference was statistically significant(P<0.05). And there was also statistically significant difference between PMMA-1 and PMMA-2(P<0.05). With these results it was found that hydrolysis method made PMMA surface hydrophilic and decreased the attachment of inflammatory cells as well as decreased light transmission like normal human lens. Therefore, this method would be one of proper surface modifications of PMMA.